Home!

While [the prodigal] was still far off, his father saw him and ... ran and put his arms around him. -Luke 15:20 (NRSV)

I long for home today. I love my home and I have a wonderful wife that makes our house a welcoming home. I was also raised with a mom that made our house a home. It is probably these women that have given me such a great sense of home. Yet today, I long for home...the place where Jesus is and the place where all things are made complete. James Harnish Writes:

A week from today my family will fly north and then drive two hours to a reunion with four generations of the Harnish clan. We'll drive past the farm where my dad's parents raised seven children. We'll visit the hillside cemetery where my mother's parents are buried. We'll worship in the church where I was baptized. Again and again, my daughters will patiently endure and laugh at the stories about my home life when I was a child.

Far too many people remember a different home life, one filled with fear, rejection, abuse, and pain. But the idea of home goes deeper than our individual experiences. Home is not so much a place as it is a longing. At its depths, the longing for home leads us to recognize our deep, spiritual homesickness for God.

One of Jesus' most familiar and loved parables is the story of two sons, one who went away and one who stayed home. Most of all, it's the story of our loving God who longs for each of us to come home. Our deep spiritual hungers are satisfied only by relationship with God, and we are all homeless without it. But like the father in Jesus' story, God watches for us and comes running to welcome us into that relationship the moment we turn toward it.

I think in our worship we get a small glimpse of what heaven and home is. It is a place that draws us back in return and desire. So, today I worship a great and mighty God that is preparing a place for me and I long to be there.

You know I love ya and I pray I will see you there too. Don